Stacy Davis Gates: The scandal-plagued leadership of a teachers union president
Stacy Davis Gates’ tenure as president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers has been riddled with scandals. Now, fewer than 1-in-3 Chicagoans have a favorable opinion of the union.
Stacy Davis Gates’ leadership record might cause members in the Illinois Federation of Teachers’ 200 affiliates to consider leaving the union.
At least 15,600 education employees have already chosen not to affiliate with IFT. With Davis Gates at the helm as president since October 2025, union affiliates risk losing the trust of both teachers and the communities they serve.
Davis Gates has tanked the Chicago Teachers Union’s reputation in Chicago since becoming its president in 2022. Teachers in other districts can expect her to do the same to IFT.
She has subjected CTU to multiple federal investigations and been plagued with other scandals, from running a deficit and quadrupling the union’s political spending to not paying her taxes and utility bills and sending her son to private school instead of letting her members educate him.
Teachers who don’t want to answer to Davis Gates can join the thousands of other education employees who have rejected union membership. Learn more at LeaveIFT.com.
Meanwhile, we’ve compiled a look at CTU and Davis Gates.
CTU hits record-low popularity among Chicagoans under Davis Gates
Just 28.8% of Chicagoans had a favorable opinion of CTU in an April poll conducted by M3 Strategies for the Illinois Policy Institute. More than half had an unfavorable opinion of the union.
The favorable percentage was 44% in February 2023. That means Davis Gates has driven down CTU’s popularity among Chicagoans by over 16 percentage points since taking over.
She and other union leadership have shown they prioritize politics over students. Chicagoans have taken notice. Illinoisans in other IFT affiliate districts will, too.
CTU has undergone federal investigations with Davis Gates in charge
With Davis Gates at the helm, CTU has undergone multiple federal investigations concerning a lack of financial transparency.
The union’s own rules require it to publish a financial audit annually. For five years, leadership failed to do so. CTU finally released the audits to members in January.
Union leaders didn’t do so willingly. It took the mounting pressure of a lawsuit filed by members and an inquiry by a U.S. congressional committee. CTU has also admitted being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and audited by the U.S. Labor Department.
Once released, the audits showed why Davis Gates and CTU leaders fought hard to keep members in the dark: Two of CTU’s combined financial statements were seriously flawed. An independent auditor issued adverse opinions about the statements, which means the auditor concluded that the union’s finances were misstated in a material and pervasive way.
Davis Gates’ leadership has been fraught with other scandals
Her tenure as president of CTU has largely been about politics, but it’s also been about her gaffes, her dust-ups and her personal misdeeds and hypocrisy.
September 2025: CTU political spending quadrupled under Davis Gates’ leadership
The union spent over $4.2 million on “political activities and lobbying” in its 2025 fiscal year. That’s a record high since it started filing federal reports. It is also quadruple its 2022 political spending, reflecting CTU’s focus on politics since Davis Gates became president.
March 2025: Davis Gates cursed at a senior SEIU executive
At a March 2025 fundraiser hosted by Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, Davis Gates reportedly approached SEIU Illinois State Council Executive Director Anthony Driver and extended her hand for a handshake before pulling it back and saying to him, “Y’all ain’t shit and you ain’t shit.”
January 2025: Davis Gates mocked former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez by comparing him to a “terrible” special education student who can’t be suspended
At a January 2025 meeting of hundreds of elected union delegates members related to contract negotiations, Davis Gates compared then-CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to a “terrible” special education student who can’t be suspended because of policy. She later apologized.
January 2024: CPS principal and former CTU delegate files police report after Davis Gates threatens physical violence
Davis Gates allegedly made threatening comments at a January 2024 union meeting, urging members to commit violence against Stevenson Elementary School Principal William Hozian. According to the police report Hozian filed, Davis Gates said, “In talking to my Stevenson brothers and sisters, I told them they should punch their principal in the face.” A police spokesperson said the incident was deemed non-criminal and the case was closed.
November 2023: Davis Gates owed the city nearly $5,600 for utilities
Letting past-due bills pile up is not new for Davis Gates. At one point, she let her city utility bills go for over three years and hit nearly $5,600.
As of December 2025, she remained behind on city utilities, with $1,544 in Chicago water, sewer and trash bills remaining, according to a Freedom of Information Act response. She also owed the city $1,843 for parking tickets and speed violations.
Davis Gates constantly calls for the “wealthy” to pay their “fair share,” yet she just can’t seem to pay her home utility bills and traffic fines on time. That’s while she brings in over $273,000 as a union boss.
November 2023: Davis Gates was taking a homeowner’s tax break on an Indiana property she didn’t live in
Davis Gates was receiving an Indiana property tax deduction reserved for owners who occupy their homes, according to public records obtained by the Illinois Policy Institute. She should have been paying four times more in property taxes. The county removed the deduction and compelled Gates to pay three years of back taxes.
October 2023: CTU ran its first reported deficit under the leadership of Davis Gates
CTU for the first time reported spending more money than it took in during its 2023 fiscal year, according to the union’s report with the Labor Department. Specifically, CTU reported receipts of $35.5 million and disbursements of almost $36 million. This underscored members’ concerns about union leaders failing to properly handle union money or to provide required reporting to members.
September 2023: Davis Gates placed her son in private school while crushing educational options for low-income children
While advocating the end of Illinois’ only private school choice program, which allowed donors to get a tax credit for funding scholarships for low-income children, Davis Gates’ hypocrisy was exposed when it was revealed that she had placed her own son in a private school.
She said she and her husband made the choice “so [their son] could live out his dream of being a soccer player while also having a curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs.”
But her advocacy against the scholarship program effectively crushed the dreams of more than 15,000 low-income children who lost the money provided by the now-defunct program.
March 2023: CTU bankrolled Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign without consulting members
CTU funneled over $2.3 million into the campaign of Brandon Johnson, one of its former employees. Its spending was met with internal criticism from members and potentially violated union rules by using member dues for politics without their approval. The action prompted an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the union.
Union members can opt out
Teachers can join the thousands of other education employees who have rejected union membership. Learn more at LeaveIFT.com.